some it seems I am sure there are some now that all the liberty and freedome they hear of from the Gospel or by getting off from the law it is nothing in the world but that they may go on more in sin and enjoy their lusts more freely this is to pervert the Gospel And what the end of these people shall be you may see in 2 Pet. 1. and in the Epistle of Jude they are appointed to damnation and their damnation slumbereth and sleepeth not that is they are going on amain they are going faster towards Hell then any Drunkard or Whoremonger A Malefactor never goeth so fast to death as these do to destruction when all the knowledge of liberty that they have is onely to give occasion to provide more for their lusts then before Let us consider and take heed of that 2. Another thing is seeing you have liberty by walking according to the Spirit for where the Spirit is there is freedome that is certain use it not for the offence of your Brethren As some there are that when they hear they are free are ready to say I care not what all the world say I know this is not a sin and therefore I will do it Beloved that is far from walking worthy according to the Gospel I became all things saith Paul to all men that I might win sâ—me I am under the law to them that are under the law and without law to them that are without law I became all things to all men that I might gain some so we must not please our selves but one another for edification Rom. 15. and condescend to men of low sort Rom 12. Who is weak saith the Apostle and I am not weak If thou see a man under the law fumbling and wallowing upon Mount Sinai without the knowledge of the Gospel despise him not and say He is a Legallist and what have we to do with him but endeavour to frame thy heart and thy language and carriage so suitable to him that thou mayest win upon him and so with others This is the language of the Gospel and the true way of the Spirit of God when a man knows his freedome and yet he becomes all things to all men that he may do them good There is one word that I think is the word and will of God and I desire that thou mayest take it so and carry it with thee 2. A second thing that I advise you to that are Spiritual that the Lord hath revealed a little of the Gospel to it is this that you would endeavour to walk humbly O walk humbly Why so I will tell you why because a man when he is under the law he shall be twenty years striving for a little knowledge or grace and shall hardly get them but as soon as ever a man comes rightly to Christ and to know him then there is such a flood of grace and such abundance of revelations it is the Scriptures word there is such abundance of manifestations of God and of the Image of God when they begin to come in that it is a hard thing then to keep the soul down for Spiritual things when they come in rightly when the flood-gates are open they come in as waves one upon the neck of another For Spiritual Gospel-truths multiply in the Soul a thousand-fold one lesson from another and one Scripture opens another and then there is no end and then it is hard to keep the soul humble Therefore in 2 Cor. 12. when Paul was wrapt into the third Heavens because of the abundance of revelations that he had seen for he had seen and heard things that he could not utter and speak to others he was ready to be proud to be lifted up and lest he should be so God sent a messenger of Satan to buffet him It implies it was a hard thing for Paul the Apostle when abundance of revelations came into his soul not to be lifted up And this spoils some honest hearts I hope they are so and that God will bring them home that having been kept bare of food as some Souldiers that went to relieve Glocester when they came home to the City they killed themselves with eating full and good food so when poor souls have gone upon the bare Mountains of Sinai and then have come to the Pastures of righteousness they go so greedily and are so taken that if God be not wonderful merciful they will be undone by being lifted up Therefore beware of this learn from Paul's example to seek to the Lord to keep your hearts humble 3. A third thing is this Endeavour to walk simply I mean to keep to the simplicity of the Gospel The Gospel though there be glorious Mysteries in it to feed the soul yet notwithstanding it is a plain simple thing Now here the Devil endeavours to undo souls as it is ordinary in this City when men come once to understand a little of the Gospel and to taste the sweetness of it the Devil screws them up to sublimare all Religion into Notions to cleave a hair and Religion will be all in Idea's and conceits of the Nature of God and of the Creature whereas the Gospel is a plain thing Paul desired to know the death of Christ and the power of his resurrection and Paul teacheth Servants how to obey their Masters and Masters how to carry themselves to their Servants and Wives to their Husbands and such simple plain things Now these are accounted nothing and that is the reason that many among us they do more and more lose the Word of God unless it be about some sublime Notions If a Minister be upon such Points some high Idea's for they feed upon such that is worth the while but if a Minister speak of things that concern their Calling or their Sex and Condition that is plain it hath no taste in it no more then the white of an Egge It is a hard thing to keep to the simplicity of the Gospel As the Devil tempted our first Parents God gave Adam and Eve sufficient knowledge to do his will and they had sufficient Natural knowledge for they named all the Creatures yet notwithstanding she must needs go from the simplicity of Gods will and be curious and she must know good and evil there was the distinction good and evil thought she what kinde of good and evil she goes to this sublime conceit and so was lost Now saith Paul I am afraid of you lest the Devil should beguile you so I am loth to offend you for I had rather win you or else I could instance in twenty or forty conceits and distinctions of things Idea's that are above the simplicity of the Gospel and that is enough to make us leave them because they are above the simplicity of the Gospel and the excellency of the Gospel is not in those Idea's but in knowing the power of plain things as the death of Jesus Christ Every man in Jerusalem
God Now the natural man is not able to judge of things above the principles of Nature The Apostle tells us No man knows the things of a man but the spirit of man which is in him 1 Cor. 2. 11. The things of man are all created things man is therefore said to be as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world or an Epitome or Compendium wherein all created things are described as in a Map or short Abridgement Now the principle of reason in mans heart is able to search out the hidden things of nature But this large principle of man is too narrow to search into the things of the Spirit so saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 11 12 14 15. The things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God The Spirit searcheth the deep things of God And again he saith The wisdome of the Spirit is but foolishness to the naturall man And why so because saith he Spiritual things are spiritually discerned that is they are to be understood in a spiritual sense to which mans carnal reason cannot reach But now saith he the spirituall man discerneth all things so that divine things are onely known by the Spirit 't is the Spirit of all Truth that leads into all Truth Then 't is not all Maximes and Rules 't is not Sy 〈…〉 gistical Reasonings and Disputes 't is not Books an◠Treatises 't is not all Systems and Bodies of Divinity that can reveal the secret mysteries of Truth but it is the work of the Spirit for the mystery of Christ is not meerly letter and form without but a quickning Spirit within us Yet 6. We are taught that there is a most profound spiritual reasoning in godliness and that it is the highest act of the minde which is the highest faculty of the soul The minde of a Saint is Gods Throne and the motions of the minde or the reasonings thereof is nothing but Christ swaying the soul according to his good pleasure It 's true that reason as 't is in man is a most imperfect and weak light and falls short of the light of God being depraved and mixt with much darkness and so is unsuitable to judge divine things but reason considered in its height and excellency is no other then Jesus Christ and the Spirit then so much as reason hath of the light of God so much it hath of Jesus Christ Then the most excellent the most supreme and the sublimest reason is in godliness because in it is the greatest clearness certainty and light The Apostle calls it Demonstration now divine reason is demonstration which is an evidencing of things by the clearest surest and most irresistible light that can be Now Christ is this spiritual reason for saith the Apostle that which manifests is light Eph. 5. 13. And what is that light but Christ and his Spirit Thus I have given thee a taste of things to set an edge to thy appetite that thou mayest make a fuller meal of Divine Dainties by reading the ensuing Treatise where thou hast a Table richly spread Now if thou art one of Christs Friends then come and eat of this honey and drink of this wine yea eat and drink abundantly O beloved Here thou mayest eat and not 〈…〉 et here thou mayest drink and not be drunken the more thou earest the stronger will thy appetite be and the more thou drinkest the more wilt thou thirst and yet with the greatest saturation and content To conclude Thou mayest finde much of Christ in this Book but see whether thou canst finde much of him also in thine own heart Now that these things which are here written with Paper and Ink may be written upon the Table of thy soul by the finger of the Spirit is the prayer of him who is Thine in the Service of Christ John Robotham Octob. 24. 1650. SERMON I. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit THe main drift of the Apostle in this Epistle is to hold forth Justification by Faith or by Free-grace without the works of the Law And in Chap. 7. the Apostle doth answer an Objection for they might say What then shall we do with the Law if it cannot justifie us There the Apostle tells us that though the Law cannot justifie us yet there are many blessed uses both for Sinners and Saints to make of the Law of which I shall not now speak Now in this eighth Chapter the Apostle draws this conclusion from what he had said before There is therefore from what I have said it is evident that there is no condemnation there is no damnation there is no danger of Hell to them which are in Christ Jesus Now he opens who those are he saith they are those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And he gives a reason of it in ver 2. why there is no damnation to those people For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and of death Now he amplifies that in ver 3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh As if he should have said Thus it comes about that we are now free from the law and that there is no damnation to us because saith he that God hath sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh like one of us and he hath fulfilled the law of God and condemned sin therefore there is no sin to condemn us nor no jot of the law that is not fulfilled therefore we are just and righteous and clear There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus for God hath sent his Son to condemn sin c. Now in the fourth Verse it is more particularly expressed That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit I shall not orderly go over to shew the Coherence distinctly as I might but briefly as I can come to those Lessons that the Lord is to teach us That the Righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us c. There are in the words two things Here is a great Priviledge as any can be to have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us And here are secondly the parties that have the benefit of this Priviledge Those that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Concerning the Priviledge to understand the words a little That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us That the law might be fully satisfied in point of righteousness that the law might have such a righteousness which indeed the law requires that it might have a full and compleat righteousness in us So that briefly these are the Lessons which I shall open from hence which I desire
he grounds his Saintship and his justification upon his holiness Now Beloved this is it that I would desire the Lord to bring you and me to to know that I am a just man onely by the righteousness that is in Christ that the law is perfectly fulfilled for me by Jesus Christ and not partly by him and partly by me but onely and perfectly by him and I am called just but onely as or because I am united to him that hath gotten a perfect righteousness for me Then let me build my Justification upon that onely and not upon what I am not upon my temper or upon my graces or my gifts or the like take heed of that but let it be built wholly upon Jesus Christ his death and resurrection He was delivered for our offences and rose again for our justification Let us build upon that that we may come to this temper once to have our justification in a stock clearly in Jesus Christs hands that when we do good we may not imagine that we are a jot the more justified or when we fall or fail in good we may not conceive that we are a jot less justified then before that though one day we have our hearts inlarged to do good and to do more good in one day then it may be we did in a moneth before yet this goes not to the stock of my justification I am not one jot the more justified and sometimes God leaves the flesh and the remnants of sin that foil us and I will mourn for it and be humbled for it as a transgression against my father but I am not a jot more unjustified then I was before in the sight of God in regard of the Covenant of works that Christ hath fulfilled So thus I would have you do as your Merchants and Tradesmen in your City you have a certain Stock that you lock it may be in an iron Chest and that stock is the quick as you call it and you have besides so many pounds or so many hundreds that you turn and wind about through all the year as you have occasion but from the stock the quick you will not lay any thing out of that you will not touch that but lay out in expences and winde and turn the rest Just so I would have it with you that seeing justification is onely built on Christ and I have the word of faith to certifie me of it and the Spirit of faith to shew it me within I would not have my good or evil to be an ingredient into that but leave that as a stock clearly in the hands of Jesus Christ Or as we see a maid or woman that spins she holds one hand steady and turns about the wheel with the other so our justification we should hold it steady for it is not built at all upon any thing that is in us but let us turn and winde the rest that is Sanctification we must strive against sin and mourn for it but leave justification wholly to Christ for it is not built on me but is onely by the death and resurrection of Christ Therefore as Christ saith Luk. 18. when we have done all the good we can say we are unprofitable servants I have not gotten one farthing to day nor in all my life to help to fulfill the law of God or to help to my justification that is onely in the hands of Christ that is my quick my cash my stock and when thou failest and seest lusts and pride and wantonness arise in thee say this hath no influence to hinder my justification it is no ingredient into that that is built upon another thing it is wholly in Christ and his righteousness he hath fulfilled the law and I am just by marriage and by union with him Therefore I will go and take my sins and mourn for them desire God to cleanse me from them but I must hold the quick still hold justification untouched and unshaken and unmoveable in the hands of Jesus Christ I shall leave the inlargement of this and other things till the Afternoon SERMON II. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit THere are three Lessons that we should learn from these words The first is implied That the righteousness of the law must be fulfilled Or Every man is bound to fulfill the law of God That we have already done with Secondly That the Law of God is perfectly fulfilled in all true Believers Thirdly That true Believers are they who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit We made some entrance upon the second That the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in all true believers I spake a little of this and shall adde something further to what I said if God will The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in every true believer Not personally as I told you for there is no Saint no not Abraham himself that can say the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in me that is personally that I have walked so the law is satisfied by my walking But the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us not personally but in us by reason that Christ and we are one and he is made righteousness to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. He is made of God to us wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption then whatsoever Christ is or hath it is ours Therefore saith the Apostle The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us He doth not say it is fulfilled in Christ though that be true but he takes the boldness to say it is fulfilled in us by virtue of our union with Jesus Christ So in every true Saint or believer the righteousness of the law through Christ is perfectly fulfilled The weakest Saint if he be a true Saint he hath perfectly fulfilled the law of God he hath perfectly satisfied every demand that the law can make he hath perfectly paid every peny-worth of debt that he oweth to the law the weakest Saint it may be a poor Saint that men can see nothing but corruption in all the day and all the week and all the year long almost yet that man if he be a true Saint though he be weak hath perfectly in Christ kept the law of God and is a just man and the law of God cannot come upon him nor the Sergeant the Devil to arrest him for one peny or farthing because he can say as Paul saith here The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us Therefore that is the reason as I told you that Paul saith I am dead to the law that is I am as free from the law as a man that is dead when a man is dead the law goes no further on him So it is said we are delivered from the law and freed from the law and that is the reason also that the Apostle three times in one Chapter puts our salvation upon the righteousness
of God he faith not by the mercy of God though that be true there is infinite mercy but saith he that God might declare his righteousness in Christ to save us It is a merciful thing for God to give us Christ and to give us hearts to know that Christ and to believe in that Christ it is infinite mercy but now that we are in Christ and united in him as there was mercy so it is righteous and just with God to save us because we are righteous persons Mistake me not I say every poor Saint through Christ is a righteous person a just man I say in and through Christ he hath taken away all our sins and forgiven all our iniquities Coloss 2. So that when God saves believers he doth not onely save them out of mercy but out of righteousness he can do no otherwise therefore it is three times over his righteousness his righteousness his righteousness Rom. 3. And that is a blessed word in Heb. 12. Ye are come to the spirits of just men made perfect I do not conceive that it is spoken of the spirits of men in heaven as many do and no wonder they mistake for I did so for many years That place it looks so like heaven that I took it for heaven it self Ye are come unto mount Sion to the general assembly and Church of the first-born and to the spirits of just men made perfect A man would think it were heaven it self it is called heaven but it is nothing in the world but the glorious estate of the Saints in Jesus Christ under the New-Testament as you may see afterwards Therefore as Christ saith let this word sink into your hearts that if thou be a right believer thou art perfectly just and righteous through Jesus Christ as if thou hadst never sinned against the law of God not by thy own righteousness but by the righteousness of Jesus Christ For what can be said more faith the Apostle The righteousness of the law is fulfilled He doth not say we have a piece of it but it is fulfilled that is to an Iota or tittle the law cannot say Black is thine eye because Christ hath paid and done all that it can demand Now to give you a word or two of the grounds or Reasons to help you to believe this truth to shew you how it comes about It comes about three wayes I mean it will be clear to you three wayes if you consider three things Reas 1. First You must consider that Jesus Christ which is our Surety he was sent of the Father out of his love as a publick person to fulfil the law of God by doing and suffering as a publick person There is much comfort in that Beloved you can never throughly understand your justification unless you study the first Adam what kinde of person Adam was as you may see in Rom. 5. Now the Lord Jesus he came a publick person and he was delivered for our offences as it is said Rom. 4. 25. he did die for our sins That 's one thing Reas 2. Now the second thing that demonstrates this to us is besides his dying as a publick person there is a union made between every poor believer and Christ as really as between Christ and his Father Indeed it is called in Scripture a Marriage because as in a Marriage all the wealth of the Husband is the Wives it becomes hers and she hath a right to it after Marriage so all that is in Christ becomes ours by this union But it is a more real union a closer union by far then that of Marriage it is compared to the union between the Members and the Head now by this union that you may reade of in Joh. 17. all that is ours becomes Christs and all that is Christs becomes ours There are two things Reas 3. Then thirdly we finde that God the Father to whom the debt was owing and whose law this was that we must satisfie he acknowledgeth satisfaction And what can we have more God the Father acknowledgeth that his Son hath satisfied the law and therefore we are freed Now he doth acknowledge it three wayes First You shall have it Mat. 17. compared with 2 Pet. 1. for Peter is much in it We follow not devised fables but we come to speak of the voice in the Mount This is my beloved Son As if he had said This is one main piece of the Gospel we heard a voice when we were with our Master in the Mount saying This is my beloved Son in whom my soul is well pleased That for his person Then a second thing that did shew that he was satisfied was by suffering Jesus Christ after he was arrested and in prison for our debt for Christ was in prison for our debt he was arrested and that according to law he was brought into prison and all our Suits were clapped on his back all our Executions and Outlaries were laid on his shoulders and then the Father let him out of prison being our Surety if he had not paid our debt he had not come out of prison but now the Father lets him out that is the Father suffered him to rise from the dead Therefore we find that our justification is laid more upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ then upon his death as we see in Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification that is he did die for our sins and was raised again for our justification And in Rom. 8. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us that is his dying for us did satisfie the law but that did not justifie us untill we see that he was risen again and then we see that all the debt is paid because our Surety is gotten out of prison Therefore justification I mean the knowledge of it at least principally ariseth from Christs resurrection Now when I see Christ is risen and gone abroad he is gone out of the grave and gone to heaven I know that the law is fulfilled and the Father is satisfied and the Sergeant the Devil hath nothing to arrest me for all is satisfied all is clear Thirdly and lastly I know God the Father is satisfied for the law it is God the Fathers Writ that he had against us and now we see that all is paid not onely because our Surety is got out of prison for so a man may do that hath not paid a debt but because when he was out of prison he ascended to his Father and the Father made him sit at the right hand of God in the glory of Majesty on high and he hath given him power and authority to rule the world till the day of Judgement Now in
other is to be pleased with one that was an Enemy before one that was against me that is now received to favour So I have told you briefly some Scriptures to shew you that the flesh is taken in this sense Now the main Reason of it why I believe this to be the chief meaning of it is because that I see clearly that this is the chief drift and scope of this Epistle and if I may speak without disparagement there is nothing more methodically laid down and this is spoken to bring them from the way of works to the way of faith But I hasten Why doth the holy Ghost call walking after the Covenant of Works and after the law walking after the flesh and the other walking after the Spirit The Reason is Because there is so great affinity and nearness between walking legally and walking sinfully that they are promiscuously in Scripture taken one for another For let a man walk and endeavour and do his best according to the Law and not by the Gospel he shall be sure to walk sinfully and carnally there is no help for it If he be under the law sin will have dominion over him and if he go after the flesh the motions of the flesh will bring forth fruit unto death Sin and the law are as it were of so near a kin that the law makes sin more sinful and the more a man strives to keep the law the more he sins The Apostle brought it so near that people were ready to speak non-sense that the law was sin He prevents the objection Is the law sin O no faith he sin is the transgression of the law So that a man that walks according to the law and not according to the way of the Gospel in spight of his heart he shall walk according to the flesh that is according to the lusts of nature he can never walk holily let him do what he can A second Reason why it is called flesh is in allusion to the two Sons of Abraham as we see in Gal. 4. 21. The Apostle there speaking of these two Covenants he saith Abraham had two sons the one by a bond-maid the other by a free woman but he who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh but he of the free woman was by promise which things are an allegory or a comparison for these are the two Covenants the one from mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage which is Agar for this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children but Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all He is proving that the old Covenant was to be done away Agar was to be thrown out with her children He proves that those two Sons of Abraham Ishmael and Isaac were types of the two Covenants that God made with mankinde the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace Now the Covenant of Works he compares to Ishmael that was born after the flesh as other children were Abraham went in to Hagar and she conceived and bare a childe as other women but Isaac was not born after the flesh all fleshly wayes could not produce Isaac he was a childe of Promise and the Spirit of God breathing in the promise and working mightily in Abraham and Sarah Isaac was produced This is an Allegory there is a great Mysterie that you think not of when you reade of Ishmael and Isaac By Ishmael is meant the Covenant of Works and the principles of it and the practitioners of it and they walk according to the flesh as Ishmael did and by Isaac is meant the Covenant of Grace and those that go that way are children of the promise as Isaac was So God hath set this Comparison and I conceive the Apostle alludes to it and calls it a walking according to the flesh As if he had said Thou shalt never have this righteousness by walking in the way of thy father Ishmael by Mount Sinai in Arabia by walking in the law to turn away the wrath of God but if thou wilt get this righteousness thou must walk according to the Spirit thou must get the Spirit and be a childe of promise The third and last Reason that I shall give why it is called walking according to the Flesh is because of weakness for flesh is put for weakness as the Scripture saith They are Flesh and not Spirit that is they are poor weak things so those that walk in that way in the way of the law they are weak creatures there is nothing but wishing and woulding and covenanting and promising and protesting and vexing and fretting but there is no strength Now one Saint that is truly planted in Christ and the Gospel hath truly taken place in his heart he hath more strength then five hundred of the other Saith Paul I can do all things I can want and I can abound I can go to prison freely I can rejoyce with them that rejoyce and mourn with them that mourn Because the same Spirit that dwells in Christ and works effectually the same Spirit dwells in us and works in us Therefore that is the meaning of it They that walk after the flesh that is they that go after the law they are weak they tug and are never the nearer Heaven and if they should live a thousand years they would be no better but wishers and woulders and say I have a good desire to do as the Preacher saith but I have no power Vse Let me conclude with one word of Use from all this that hath been said which I hope you will consider of From this Doctrine thus opened you may hence see the saying of our Lord Jesus Christ verified and made good that few shall enter into the kingdome of Heaven Doubtless Paul did not look on sinners and Saints as we do we account every Professor let his principles be what they will either from the first or second Adam if he begin to leave sin and to perform duties we account him a good man But when the Lord comes to judge he will look further and examine us and will I fear finde abundance that shall never enter into the kingdome of Heaven even of those that follow good old Adam I mean there are abundance of Professors that have left corrupt Adam in his grossness and follow good old Adam that is a sprig from that they will abstain from sins and they will perform duties and they will do no wrong and all is but old Adam still Therefore you that are Professors look to your selves for the Lords sake I am mistaken if there be not many hundreds of us that will be found the Sons of Ishmael at the last day many that make a great Profession and many that make a greater Profession then others that are honest spiritual Saints before the world before men for when a man goes to keep the law every light that comes into his
soul intends his resolution every thing intends it in that course he is in and he may go to the highest and be the greatest Professor and be ready for all duties and yet be found a stranger to Jesus Christ therefore look to your selves I remember Mr. Bolton that blessed man he divides the World for the fewness of them that shall be saved saith he the greatest part of the World two or three parts of it are most intire Heathens In Europe here we have the most part Papists and but a few that are Protestants and among those parts there are few that profess Religion and among those that profess Religion there are very few that do it in truth as another godly man saith take a multitude of Professors that have been bred under the law that have been bred on Mount Sinai take a Congregation of such Professors as there be many such in England and let the Gospel come and be Preached rightly among them to translate them let a Minister of the Gospel come and say there is no damnation to them that are in Christ Jesus and you are justified freely and Christ hath fulfilled the law and all is clear whereas before there were fears lest they were not righteous and they did work hard now let a man labour to draw them to the Gospel and to plant Christ and the principles of Christ in their hearts and I fear that there is not one in ten but will miscarry in the removing as you finde it often with your Trees when you remove and transplant them I say abundance of those Professors will come to nothing for when the fear of Hell and damnation is gone from their Conscience when the Whip is gone they will turn the grace of God into wantonness Nay some will turn down-right enemies and persecutors of the Gospel as the Pharisees and of those that would come in in all probability in removing and translating them from the law to the Gospel there is not one in ten but would turn the grace of God into wantonness and there goes all their Religion The way to Heaven is narrow our Lord Christ saith and I think it will be found far more narrow then we conceive of it Therefore as another godly man saith we are exceedingly mistaken in judging of Professors we look upon them and those that begin to amend from their sins we call them Professors But this is the true way of judging that there are but two Roots in the world the Old Adam and the New Adam there are but two Covenants Sinai and Jerusalem there are but two wayes of walking After the flesh and after the Spirit after the Law and after the Gospel Now I judge him to be a Saint and a Believer and God calls and owns him as a Saint though he be weak and be not so glorious in the eye of the world as many formal Professors yet if I see any principles of the Gospel in him if there be a little of Christ in him in power though it be but in a little measure and he can pray but a little and he cannot keep Fasting dayes and dayes of Humiliation so plausibly as many that make a trade of it in this City yet if that prayer and repeating and reading and hearing or preaching or whatsoever it be if it flow from the Lord Jesus Christ as a natural man knows natural things so one Saint knows another the Spirit of God knows the things of God It is true we all of us have a great deal of flesh and there is somewhat of good old Adam as well as of corrupted Adam but surely we ought not to conceive him to be a Saint let him be never so glorious in the eye of the world and in the performance of duties if there be not somewhat of Christ in him You may see a poor despicable creature and see a great deal of Christ in him and on the other side you may see great Professors that are Ringleaders of others and yet there is not one jot of Christ in them but all is Old Adam screwed up in his brave parts and all is but flesh a little more refined and he that is flesh and all that is flesh cannot inherit the kingdome of God Look to your selves seriously especially you that are most eminent that think best of your selves that are ancient Professors unless you look to your selves you may take a great deal of pains and when all comes to all after all your praying and fasting and repeating and preaching you may be found to be nothing in the world but men that walk according to the flesh that is according to the refined and well educated principles of Old Adam you may be Ishmaels and be built upon Mount Sinai when all is done Therefore I say we may hence learn to judge rightly of persons who are Saints and who are not who are the children of God and who are not For in most things we do not judge rightly we do not judge as God judgeth We usually judge of men and things according to natural wisdome or according to some distinctions and definitions that we have of things in that natural divinity we have As for instance If a man leave his drunkenness and whoredome and come up to some kinde of holiness in his life in appearance if he come to hear Sermons and repeat them and pray a little in his Family that man we call a Saint a godly man and it may be he may be so and it may be not so Now the way that God judgeth of all men is as they are children either of the Old or of the New Adam and not according to such a proportion of strictness in their lives for the Pharisees went beyond many weak Professors in common righteousness And this should be a main ground of our communion and fellowship and delight in others whether in Churches or otherwise It should not be grounded on this If such a man be of my opinion in such things if he agree with me he is for me and another that agrees with another he is for him These kinde of Communions will prove nothing but Faction in the end But the true Communion is when Saints together keep Fellowship Church-fellowship or other upon Spiritual grounds that is when Christ in his Soul and Christ in mine close together this is the main ground that makes Communion and Fellowship whatsoever comes in besides that is additional but if there be a Communion of people without this I say it will prove but Faction but walking according to the flesh I should shew now what course we should take to bring our selves to Spiritual walking And secondly what they should do that God hath brought up in some measure to this condition But I leave that till God give another opportunity SERMON IV. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit THere were three